We exploit the regional variation in negative attitudes towards immigrants to Sweden in order to analyse the consequences of the attitudes on immigrants welfare. We find that attitudes towards immigrants are of importance: they both affect their labour market outcomes and their quality of life. We interpret the negative effect on wages as evidence of labour market discrimination. We estimate the welfare effects of negative attitudes, through their wage and local amenities, for immigrants with different levels of skills, origin, gender and age.

Files in this item: 1

While examining the macroeconomic effects of increased government
control of the informal sector, this paper develops a two-sector
general equilibrium model featuring matching frictions and worker-
firm wage bargaining. Workers search for jobs in both the formal
and the informal sector. We analyse the impact of higher punishment
rates and a higher audit rate on labour market performance. We find
that a higher punishment rate reduces the size of the informal sector
and reduces unemployment. A higher audit rate has an ambiguous
impact on unemployment, and may actually increase the size of the
underground economy.
JEL-codes: H26
Keywords: Tax evasion, underground economy, matching, bargaining,
unemployment.

Files in this item: 1

The Weimar Republic is analysed within the framework of limited and open access orders. Germany had developed into a mature limited access order before World War I, with rule of law and open economic access but only limited access to politics. After the war, Germany developed toward an open access order; this process was, however, not sustainable. Two interpretations are discussed, which both pose a challenge to the limited access-open access framework: (1.) Weimar Germany was the first open access order that failed; (2.)
sufficiency conditions of the sustainability of open access are not yet included in the framework. It is proposed that sustainable open access orders do not only depend on open political and economic access and on the state monopolising violence capacities (coercive power); government and the political institutions must also have the capacity to efficiently create legitimacy via coordination capabilities.

Files in this item: 1

It is the object of considerable debate in Western scholarship whether an
authoritarian political order dominated by a strong communist party can
continue to exist in China given the many challenges stemming from internal
reform and the impact of globalization. Will China eventually turn democratic
and will the communist party become obsolete and disappear, just as has
happened in many other former communist countries. There seems to be a
general consensus that Chinese political system is bound to change, but there
is no agreement as to the direction and form of change...

Files in this item: 1

This study aims to put forward a new concept in charismatic leadership
theory: source of leader charisma (SLC). Using an inductive approach, we
identified the various dimensions of SLC in the Chinese context, and found that
SLC comprises of charismatic personality and charismatic behaviors.
Charismatic personality consists of three dimensions: high morality, outstanding
talents, and attractive characteristics. Charismatic behavior also includes three
dimensions: visional inspiration, character development, and morale stimulation.
Finally, we developed a primary model to explore the mechanism by which the
SLCs are attributed to charisma by follower. Our findings in the present study
contribute to new evidence that charismatic leadership theory may transcend
cultural boundaries.

Patent indicators are widely used to assess innovative output. Despite the
large variety of empirical studies in the field, however, the precise meaning
of these indicators and their obvious relation to patent value is still based on
assumptions and intuitions. This paper provides the first empirical test of
patent indicators as value measures in the structural form. It disentangles the
different effects reflected in patent indicators and enhances our
understanding why inventions are valuable at all. Using a newly assembled
data set on European polymer patents, current assumptions on the
innovation incentives set by patentability requirements (novelty, inventive
activity) are tested. The estimations are carried out using a custom-tailored
two stage discrete choice probit model yet unknown in the literature. The
results support the assumptions that novelty and inventive activity enhance a
patent’s value. They confirm the importance of backward citations, family
size, and forward citations as va lue indicators. However, they expand on
and partly break with the respective explanations why patent indicators
correlate with profitability.

While immigration is unlikely to affect the employment of native workers in the long run, employment of immigrants may be associated with significant short-run adjustment costs for native workers as they have to fi nd alternative employment or are temporarily pushed into unemployment. In this paper, we therefore study the impact of immigrants at the workplace on the employment of native co-workers using a rich matched worker-fi rm data set for Denmark. Estimation of a single risk duration model for job spells of native workers shows that job separation rates increase if more immigrants are hired, especially when it comes to immigrants from Eastern Europe and less developed countries (LDCs). Furthermore, in a competing risks duration model, we fi nd that while immigrants from LDCs increase the unemployment risk for native workers, immigrants from Eastern Europe instead increase the job change probability of native workers. Thus, adjustment costs for native workers are more likely in the case where LDC immigrants are hired. Finally, we fi nd that the results only apply for low-skilled native workers.

This article advances the ‘dispositive’ (le dispositif) as a key conception in Foucault’s work. As developed in his annual lectures in 1978 and 1979, the dispositive represents a crucial constituent of societal analysis on par with the familiar analytics of power/knowledge and the governmentality perspective – indeed it forms a lesser known intermediary between these. Foucault’s dispositional analysis articulates a history of connected social technologies that we have constructed to relate to each other. Expounding these points, the article distinguishes various dispositional prototypes and develops key ‘socio-ontological’ implications of the analy-sis. Reinstating the proper analytical status of the dispositive contributes to the reception of the important notion; the interpretation of Foucault’s entire oeuvre; and a resourceful approach to the study of contemporary societal problems.

Files in this item: 1

There has been a commonly held belief, especially in the United States, that Chinese business is distinctively Chinese. Understanding its Chineseness in unitary, monolithic and national terms, this assumption has both underpinned a zero-sum perspective on U.S.-China relations, and fuelled the China threat argument. This paper seeks to critically examine this essentialist construction of Chinese business and its foreign policy implications. Drawing on a global production network (GPN) approach, the paper argues that as well as exhibiting its Chinese characteristics, Chinese business is increasingly characterised by its transnationalness, which calls into question the coherence and unity of the Chinese economy. In this context, the American construction of China as a singular, threatening economic entity not only fails to capture the multiple, unstable identities of Chinese business and the complexities of U.S.-China relations associated with them, but often serves to inform simplistic, counter-productive and even dangerous China policy in the age of global interdependence.

Files in this item: 1

The notion of ‘everyday life’ (EDL) has found renewed analytical purchase in recent years and has become a widely used term in explorations of social life, moving all the way from studies of the family to the financial system. But what exactly is EDL and how can we understand it? This paper undertakes a preliminary investigation into how the term has been interpreted in various literatures. There are a wide variety of analytical takes on EDL and the objective is to utilize this preliminary discussion to provide the intellectual resources to deal with its connections to politics and constitutionality in particular. Although the relationship between EDL and constitutionality might at first sight seem remote the argument is that there is an emerging constitutionalization of EDL that is heralding a potentially new form of citizenship amongst those subject to its strictures. Throughout the paper it is relationships operating in the imaginary that are stressed, contrasting this to a more normal emphasis on social relationships in the first instance.

ABSTRACT
Working with usability techniques, with focus on how a given technique enables data capture made us ask the question: What kind of information is it an HCI expert want from the user when conducting a usability test? We answer the question by discussing two techniques both relying on concurrent data. Think Aloud is one of the most frequently used techniques and almost an institution in itself. Eye-tracking is new in usability testing and still at an experimental level in HCI. We reflect critically upon the two obtrusive techniques. We discuss the usability of concurrent data capture, suggesting participatory analysis and retrospective verbalisation as a possible step in usability testing.
Keywords Concurrent data, usability test, Think Aloud, Eye-tracking, mind, participatory analysis and retrospective verbalisation

Files in this item: 1

MNCs are increasingly investing in developing countries to be part of rapid market growth, to enhance the efficiency of their value chains, and to access abundant resources and talent. The potential gains are high, however so are the risks. Some developing country subsidiaries become top performers in terms of growth and revenue and assume key roles in the MNCs’ global value chains, but other subsidiaries fail to meet expectations, struggling to produce positive returns and frequently experiencing stop of operations. While the issue of subsidiary performance should be at the heart of any International Business (IB) enquiry into MNC activity in developing countries, surprisingly little research has examined this issue. Based on a unique data base of approx. 800 MNC subsidiaries established between 1969 and 2008, this paper examines the evolution in subsidiary performance and the factors influencing this performance. The analysis reveals that MNC subsidiaries in developing countries have improved enormously on their performance since the early investments in the 1960s and 70s, but also that the risks of failure remain high. The paper moves on to analyze factors shaping subsidiary performance. Inspired by received IB theory, it is hypothesized that subsidiary performance is essentially shaped by five dimensions: location, industry, MNC capabilities, subsidiary role, and entry mode. A variance component analysis is employed to identify the sources of subsidiary performance. Especially MNC capabilities and subsidiary role appear to explain variance in performance, while location and industry factors appear to have less explanatory power. This suggests that while locational and industry factors affect subsidiary performance, strong MNC capabilities and appropriate strategy can make MNCs succeed regardless of location and industry. The findings of the study have important implications for the IB literature, for managers and for policy aimed at promoting FDI in developing countries.

Files in this item: 1

This article investigates a segmentation model used by the Danish Tax and Customs
Administration to classify businesses’ motivational postures. The article uses two different
conceptualizations of performativity to analyze what the model’s segmentations do; Hacking’s
idea of making up people and MacKenzie’s idea of performativity. Based on these two approaches
I demonstrate that the segmentation model represents and performs the businesses as it ‘makes up’
certain new ways to be a business and as the businesses can be seen as ‘moving targets’. With
inspiration from MacKenzie my following argument is that the segmentation model posits a
remarkable cleverness in that it simultaneously alters what it represents and represents this
altered reality to confirm the accuracy of its own model of the businesses’ postures. However,
despite this cleverness the model bears a blind spot as it assumes a world wherein everything
around the model is in motion and can be shaped, whereas it believes itself to be stable. As
indicated in the article, this assumption turns out problematic as the tax administration questions
the model’s ability to produce valid comparisons. All in all, the article provides a detailed
description and analysis of the model’s performativity and provides an example of a
performativity study which in its methodology differs from the methodological criteria set up by
MacKenzie.